Why would you not just use 'search' all the time? What's the use of 'match'?

Match is useful, like you said, to match from the beginning of the string. That's the point of using match. Let's say I have a field where I want to check for zip codes. I don't want any 5 digits that appear in the string: I only want those 5 digits of the zip code, starting from the beginning. If there's anything else, then there won't be a match.

With that said, you could use search and add (^) to the beginning of your regular expression. This would make it so that the expression check for a match starting from the beginning of the string, not just any match found in the string.

Here's an example:

import re

# Using search to find any match in the string

re.search("4", "123456") 
""" Match found """

# The following two are equivalent 

re.search("^4", "123456") """ No match found """
re.match("4", "123456") """ No match found """