order by feild problems

[sol01]

I am trying to put this table in the correct order, I want to list the most popular items based on hits. I use this sql query:

SELECT comp_name,hits FROM company_data ORDER BY hits ASC LIMIT 0, 30

And i get the following:

|comp_name||hits|

yun cheng county light source factory 1
Thye Chuan Co 2
BUTTERFLY PRINT IMAGE CORPORATION LIMITED 2
Van automobile CO 31
Causeway Consulting 4
Aopec Auto Parts Co., Ltd. 4
Yii Chwan Enterprise Co., Ltd. 5
Morning-sun Enterprise Ltd. 6
CNACC (Zhejiang) Import & Export Co., Ltd. 8
Chardon Taiwan Corporation 9

However you might notice that "Van automobile CO" has 31 hits. Now my select is only taking into account the first digit (3) of number "31" so its sticking it up the top when in fact it should be at the bottom of the list. Anyone help??

[Anon]

Change the datatype of the column hits to integer.

[sol01]

Thanks, great help!!!