diff --git a/gortools/src/main/scala/gorsat/Commands/Group.scala b/gortools/src/main/scala/gorsat/Commands/Group.scala
index 8489ae9d..7ab9790a 100644
--- a/gortools/src/main/scala/gorsat/Commands/Group.scala
+++ b/gortools/src/main/scala/gorsat/Commands/Group.scala
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ class Group extends CommandInfo("GROUP",
           columns += ColumnHeader("lis_" + hcol(i), i.toString)
         }
         if (useDis) {
-          columns += ColumnHeader("dis_" + hcol(i), i.toString)
+          columns += ColumnHeader("dis_" + hcol(i), "I")
         }
         if (icCols.contains(i) || fcCols.contains(i)) {
           if (useAvg) {
diff --git a/gortools/src/test/java/gorsat/UTestGroup.java b/gortools/src/test/java/gorsat/UTestGroup.java
index b437590e..e5e13778 100644
--- a/gortools/src/test/java/gorsat/UTestGroup.java
+++ b/gortools/src/test/java/gorsat/UTestGroup.java
@@ -246,6 +246,17 @@ public void testGroupInNorContextWithError() {
         }
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testGroupDist() {
+        String[] lines = TestUtils.runGorPipeLines(
+                "gorrows -p chr1:1-10 | calc pn 'abc' | calc hgnc_id 'id'" +
+                      " | group 1 -gc pn -dis -sc hgnc_id" +
+                      " | calc a = 1 + dis_hgnc_id");
+
+        Assert.assertEquals("Number of lines from the string column query", 10, lines.length);
+        Assert.assertEquals("Group -dis results correct", "2", lines[1].split("\t")[4].trim());
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void set() throws IOException {
         String contents = "Chrom\tPos\tData\n" +