If you do just
proc sql;
create table a as
select cats(max(age), '.') as myvar from sashelp.class;
quit;
by itself, and then look at the attributes of myvar you will see that it is $200, which is likely some sort of default length.
You can make the length of a in da longer or perhaps ALTER da with SQL.
EDIT:
this
data da;
length a $220;
a = 'asd';
run;
proc sql noprint;
update da set a = (select cats(max(age), '.') from sashelp.class);
update da set a = (select substrn(cats(max(age), '.'), 1, 20) from sashelp.class);
update da set a = (select substrn(cats(max(age), '.'), 1, 20) length=20 from sashelp.class);
update da set a = substrn((select substrn(cats(max(age), '.'), 1, 20) length=20 from sashelp.class), 1, 20);
quit;
proc sql;
alter table da
modify a varchar(20);
quit;
doesn't throw any errors and may give you something to work with.
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