re = /.*DATE \d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{4}(?|"(.*)".*|(.*))|.+/m
str = 'LAW Nº 1234/1998 - DATE 01/01/1998"LAW TITLE HERE MAY CONTAIN 4|_|D4NUM3R!C OR P_NC7U@7|()N".
LAW Nº 1234/1998 - DATE 01/01/1998LAW TITLE HERE MAY CONTAIN 4|_|D4NUM3R!C OR P_NC7U@7|()N
something that does not match'
subst = '$1'
result = str.gsub(re, subst)
# Print the result of the substitution
puts result
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html