Expressing the maximum of several variables using elementary functions [duplicate]

I think that integer division may provide a path to a different answer, depending on exactly how it works. I 'll do the formatting programming-style, not math-style since that is what I'm use to.

Suppose you have n arguments, A[1], A[2], A[3]..., A[n].

Define multiplier coefficient C[i][j] such that C[i][j] = 1 for A[i]>A[j], zero otherwise. This can be done using the absolute value trick as in the above formula.

Define a coefficient T[i] = sum (C[i][j]) / (n-1) using integer division. For subscript i belonging to the max value, the sum will be n-1, so T[i] will be 1. For other subscripts, the sum will be less than n-1, so T[i] will be zero.

Max = sum (T[i] A[i])

Probably I have something backwards, but I think the approach is workable, though maybe not better than original suggestion.