Do sphinx attributes have to perfectly match DB storage settings?

Question

If I have a field in my table called sortingfield and it is stored as a BIGINT(20) unsigned.

Does it have to be called as an attribute in a way that exactly matches it's storage method?

Or can it just be called like this:

 sql_attr_uint = sortingfield

Or does it have to be

 sql_attr_bigint = sortingfield

Or does the field in the DB have to be changed to signed?

Currently I am trying to sort on the field and it is not sorting.

So, to sum up again, does the way you call the attribute have to exactly match

Answer 1

No they dont have to exactly match. Everything gets transfered as strings anyway, so type conversion is going on.

You just need to beware of out of range numbers.