Assuming you use the workaround ... save to a file and upload ... I usually take a 3-program approach.
Get an idea of what's in the data. Here's the key part of this first program:
data _null_;
infile whatever;
input;
if _n_ < 10 then list;
else stop;
run;
The second program would actually attempt to read in the data. It would allow extra length for storing each variable, and would measure how many characters are actually needed. An abbreviation:
data test_length;
infile whatever firstobs=2 dlm='09'x dsd; /* skip the header line, and use tabs as delimiters */
length var1 $ 50 var2 $ 20;
input var1 var2;
len_var1 = lengthn(var1);
len_var2 = lengthn(var2);
run;
proc means data=test_length min max maxdec=0;
var len_:;
run;
The third program would shorten the lengths to what is necessary. It would read in the data and save it as a SAS data set.
Good luck.
