Query A Table For A Value In The Code File.

Ok, so im pretty much finished writing my forum web page.  However to display things like how many replies each thread has and who replied last, i need to perform a query in the code file.  Im guessing its simple enough but i cant get the syntax for actually performing any query.  I already know the sql syntax like select * from all that stuff but how do i get do something like:

Dim x as integer = sqlQuery("Select count(*) FROM ...")

 Currently i have it all working by creating a table and making it invisible and just pulling data from the table but thats sloppy and pretty ineffecient if i databind a table for every single topic name.