The "type" property will return a numerical representation of a field type instead of a "meaningful" string.
Here is an array that may help you:
<?php
$mysqli_type = array();
$mysqli_type[0] = "decimal";
$mysqli_type[1] = "tinyint";
$mysqli_type[2] = "smallint";
$mysqli_type[3] = "int";
$mysqli_type[4] = "float";
$mysqli_type[5] = "double";
$mysqli_type[7] = "timestamp";
$mysqli_type[8] = "bigint";
$mysqli_type[9] = "mediumint";
$mysqli_type[10] = "date";
$mysqli_type[11] = "time";
$mysqli_type[12] = "datetime";
$mysqli_type[13] = "year";
$mysqli_type[252] = "blob"; $mysqli_type[253] = "string"; $mysqli_type[254] = "enum";
?>