Thinking Sphinx sorting integers descending doesn't sort by highest to lowest value

Question

I'm new to using Sphinx and the Thinking Sphinx gem. I have a column that has up to 6 digit integers in it, when I do a sort on that column I'm only getting up to 5 digits by default and when it is ordering them it is doing it by only the first digit so it looks like this

99999
99998
99997
...
89999
...
79999
...
100999 <- Higher 6 digit number showing up here
10999
10998

even though I have numbers higher than 99999 this so it should look like this

any help is much appreciated

Is it stored as a integer in mysql? The sort you get looks like a string sort — Anthony Alberto, Aug 04 '12 at 04:41
Wow I feel dump now, yes it's a string type. Dealing with badly managed data, thanks. — Donavan White, Aug 04 '12 at 05:43
Added as an answer since some other people may have the same issue — Anthony Alberto, Aug 04 '12 at 12:53

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 04 '12 at 12:53

1

Make sure that you store integers as integers in your DB.

If it's in a string, no one will complain and everything'll work fine until you want to sort them :)

answered Aug 04 '12 at 12:53

Anthony Alberto

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Thinking Sphinx sorting integers descending doesn't sort by highest to lowest value

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