Display first record only in Airtable view

[Tom_Artist]

My Problem

I’m working with an Airtable base that contains product information. Here’s what my data looks like:

    Product  | Mass | Shade
1   Orange   | 2    | Orange  
2   Banana   | 1    | Yellow
3   Grape    | 0.5  | Purple

What I Want

I need to create a view that shows only the first record:

Orange | 2 | Orange

The Challenge

When I sort my table or add new records, I want the view to automatically update to show whatever is now the top row.

For instance, if I sort by Mass and get:

    Product  | Mass | Shade
1   Grape    | 0.5  | Purple
2   Banana   | 1    | Yellow  
3   Orange   | 2    | Orange

Then my single-record view should display:

Grape | 0.5 | Purple

What I’ve Tried

I looked into using record IDs or creation timestamps, but these don’t work when the table gets resorted. I also tried some formula approaches but couldn’t find a working limit parameter.

Is there any way to accomplish this in Airtable? I haven’t found anyone discussing this specific use case in other forums.

[Samuel87]

There’s actually a simpler way without extra tables or complex formulas. Just add a checkbox field called “Is Top Record” to your table. Then set up an automation that triggers when records change - it unchecks all the “Is Top Record” boxes first, then checks only the one that meets your criteria (highest mass, alphabetical first, whatever). Create a filtered view showing only checked records. Done. The view automatically updates when you sort or change data, and you’ll always see exactly one record. I use this for inventory tracking to highlight priority items. Works great when sorting changes, and way cleaner than lookup fields or extra tables.

[jackw]

Use Airtable’s interface designer - no formulas or automations needed. Create a new interface, add a record list element, and set the limit to 1. It’ll always show whatever record comes first in your current sort order.

I built this for a product launch dashboard where we needed to highlight our newest release. Updates instantly when you change the table’s sort or filter.

Best part? Interfaces automatically follow your base’s view settings. Sort by mass descending and it shows the heaviest product. Switch to alphabetical and it shows the first one alphabetically.

You can customize how that single record displays - card view, grid, or just specific fields. Way cleaner than creating extra tables or automation scripts that might break.

[lucasg]

I ran into this exact problem building a dashboard that needed to show our top product. Here’s what worked best for me: create a separate table called “Top Record Display” with just one record. In your main products table, add a formula field that ranks records based on whatever criteria you want. Then use a lookup field in the display table to grab the record where rank = 1. So if you want the heaviest product, your formula would be RANK(Mass, Products). When your data changes, the rank recalculates automatically and your display table updates. I’ve used this method across different sorting scenarios and it works consistently without any manual updates or complex automations.

[ethant]

hey, this is a neat challenge! you can try using automations that copy the top record to another table every time changes are made. it’s not perfect but it does dynamically update the first record. hope this helps!