Custom Fields & Forum Descriptions?

[Slapyo]

Is there a way I can get the number of people with a custom field of x without having to write the query in the phpinclude?

Is there a way to place that number in the forum description without major hacking, like placing the variable in the description and having it parsed rather than showing $variable?

I have a military forum and we have a custom field for the branch of the military. I would like to make some forums for each branch and within the description of each branch I would like to place the number of members of each branch in the description.

Is this at all possible without too much hacking? What would I need to do?

so i have been digging around and found something that helped a little. i can do this query to get the info.

PHP Code:

$totals = $DB_site->query_first("SELECT SUM(IF(field5='Air Force',1,0)) AS usaf, SUM(IF(field5='Army',1,0)) AS usa, SUM(IF(field5='Coast Guard',1,0)) AS uscg, SUM(IF(field5='Marine Corps',1,0)) AS usmc, SUM(IF(field5='Navy',1,0)) AS usn FROM userfield");

$totals['usaf'];
$totals['usa'];
$totals['uscg'];
$totals['usmc'];
$totals['usn']; 


now my question is this. can i place that variable in a forum description and have the number show up that is returned from the query?

also, what kind of a performance hit am i looking at if i had alot of users (100k+) and alot on at the same time at the forum home (100+)?