min/max function work-around in SAS - sas

Question

Essentially, what I would like to do is use the min/max function while altering a table. I am altering a table, adding a column, and then having that column set to a combination of a min/max function. In SAS, however, you can't use summary functions. Is there a way to go around this?
There are many more inputs but for the sake of clarity, a condensed version is below! Thanks!
%let variable = 42
alter table X add Z float;
update X
set C = min(max(0,500 - %sysevalf(variable)),0);

Answer 1

First, let's remove the %sysevalf(), they are not needed and format for readability
alter table claims.simulation add Paid_Claims_NoISL float;
update claims.simulation
set Paid_Claims_NoISL
= min(
max(0
, Allowed_Claims -&OOPM
, min(Allowed_Claims
,&Min_Paid+ max(Allowed_Claims - &Deductible * &COINS
,0
)
)
, &Ind_Cap_Claim
)
);
Notice that the first min() only has 1 argument. That is causing your ERROR. SAS thinks that because it only has 1 input, you want to summarize a column, which is not allowed in an update.
Just take that out and it should work:
alter table claims.simulation add Paid_Claims_NoISL float;
update claims.simulation
set Paid_Claims_NoISL
= max(0
, Allowed_Claims -&OOPM
, min(Allowed_Claims
,&Min_Paid+ max(Allowed_Claims - &Deductible * &COINS
,0
)
)
, &Ind_Cap_Claim
);

Answer 2

To reference the value of a macro variable you need to use &.
%let mvar = 42;
proc sql;
update X set C = min(max(0,500 - &mvar),0);
quit;
Note there is no need to use the macro function %SYSEVALF() since SAS can more easily handle the case when the value &mvar is an expression than the macro processor can.
%let mvar = 500 - 42;
proc sql;
update X set C = min(max(0,&mvar),0);
quit;