The analysis done by Terry bypasses the fact that `search(...)` returns `None` when there is no match, so indexing or calling methods in its result is not safe code. 

`findall()` returns an empty list when there is no match.

`findalliter()` returns an empty iterator when there is no match.

`findfirst()` may return a `default` value when there is no match.

If `search()` is proposed to replace `findall()[0]`, then the idiom has to be (depending on the case):

m[0] if (m := re.search(...)) else '0'
m.groups() if (m := re.search(...)) else '0'

In contrast, `findfirst()` returns a value that is the same as `findall()` when there is a match, or a `default` if there is no match.

m[0] if (m := re.findall(...)) else '0'

Compare with:

findfirst(..., default='0')