Can attribute value be stored in different table than returned by $attr->getBackendTable()?

Question

I have weird bug in my Magento code. Basically one attribute - multiselect, with backend type varchar - returns from $attr->getBackendTable() 'catalog_product_entity_varchar' but it seems that its values are stored in 'catalog_product_entity_text' instead. Something tells me it might be a bug in custom import script but I'm not sure.

Are there any special cases (besides default attribute value) when attribute value may be stored in table different than returned by getBackendTable()?

Answer 1

No, this is clearly an error. It can happen if the backend type of an attribute is changed after creation, which shouldn't be done. If you want to change the backend type of an attribute, you should first delete and then recreate it.