You should be able to change the editor settings so that tabs are not inserted when you paste them into the editor.
For example here are the setting I use in SAS On Demand (free learning instance of SAS/Studio).
But you can also add an INFILE statement so you can use the EXPANDTABS option to replace the tabs with the number of spaces needed to move to the next tab stop.
data want;
infile datalines expandtabs ;
input a b c ;
datalines;
....
Example using an actual file:
2179 options generic;
2180 filename example temp;
2181 data _null_;
2182 set sashelp.class (obs=3);
2183 file example dsd dlm='09'x ;
2184 put name age sex height weight ;
2185 run;
NOTE: The file EXAMPLE is:
(system-specific pathname),
(system-specific file attributes)
NOTE: 3 records were written to the file (system-specific pathname).
The minimum record length was 18.
The maximum record length was 20.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds
2186
2187 data _null_;
2188 infile example;
2189 input;
2190 list;
2191 run;
NOTE: The infile EXAMPLE is:
(system-specific pathname),
(system-specific file attributes)
RULE: ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+----9----+----0
1 CHAR Alfred.14.M.69.112.5 20
ZONE 46676603304033033323
NUMR 1C62549149D9699112E5
2 CHAR Alice.13.F.56.5.84 18
ZONE 466660330403323033
NUMR 1C93591396956E5984
3 CHAR Barbara.13.F.65.3.98 20
ZONE 46766760330403323033
NUMR 212212191396965E3998
NOTE: 3 records were read from the infile (system-specific pathname).
The minimum record length was 18.
The maximum record length was 20.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds
2192
2193 data _null_;
2194 infile example expandtabs;
2195 input;
2196 list;
2197 run;
NOTE: The infile EXAMPLE is:
(system-specific pathname),
(system-specific file attributes)
RULE: ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+----9----+----0
1 Alfred 14 M 69 112.5 37
2 Alice 13 F 56.5 84 34
3 Barbara 13 F 65.3 98 34
NOTE: 3 records were read from the infile (system-specific pathname).
The minimum record length was 18.
The maximum record length was 20.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds
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