The example given didn't work for me so I removed the weird quotes in the example and it now works:

//<code>
$user = JFactory::getUser();
$db = JFactory::getDbo();
$userId = $user->get('id');

// Is the user logged in?
if ($userId) {
// Grab the value from the database.
$db->setQuery("SELECT phone FROM #__comprofiler WHERE user_id=".$userId);
return $db->loadResult();
}
//</code>

Hi, I have something very close to what you're doing, but cannot get it to work. You say you've removed weird quotes, but where you've got:

... WHERE user_id=".$userId);

it doesn't look like the syntax is quite right.

I'm trying:

//<code>

$user = JFactory::getUser();
$userid = $user->get('id');

$db = JFactory::getDbo();
$db->setQuery("SELECT cf_org FROM #__extendedreg_users WHERE user_id = .$userid. ");
$value = $db->loadResult();
return $value;

//</code>