How can I display just the first record in an Airtable view?

Other Questions Airtable
1

I’m working with an Airtable base and need to create a view that shows only the first record from my table.

Here’s my current data:

    Product | Price | Category
1   Orange  | 2.50  | Fruit
2   Banana  | 1.75  | Fruit
3   Carrot  | 0.95  | Vegetable

I want to set up a view that displays just the top entry:

Orange | 2.50 | Fruit

The tricky part is that when I sort the table or add new records, the view should update to show whatever record is now in the first position.

For instance, if I sort by price and get:

    Product | Price | Category
1   Carrot  | 0.95  | Vegetable
2   Banana  | 1.75  | Fruit
3   Orange  | 2.50  | Fruit

Then my single record view should show:

Carrot | 0.95 | Vegetable

I’ve tried using formulas and filtering options but can’t figure out how to make this work. The view needs to be dynamic and always grab the topmost record regardless of sorting changes. Is there a way to accomplish this in Airtable?

2

Airtable doesn’t have a built-in way to limit views to just one record, but I’ve hit this same issue and found a solid workaround.

Create a formula field that assigns row numbers to each record:

ROWNUM()

This gives each record a number based on your current sort order. Record 1 gets number 1, record 2 gets number 2, etc.

Then make a filtered view that only shows records where the formula equals 1.

The cool part? When you change your sorting, ROWNUM() updates automatically. So if Carrot jumps to first place after sorting by price, it gets assigned number 1 and shows up in your filtered view.

I used this last year for a dashboard that needed to highlight the top priority item from a constantly changing list. Works perfectly and updates in real time.

3

Ugh, this is frustrating but there’s actually a simpler trick. Use a last modified field and filter by “is today” or “is within last hour”. When you sort or update records, the one that moves to the top gets touched and shows as recently modified. It’s a bit hacky but works without formulas or external tools.

4

none of these solutions actually work - i’ve tried them all. airtable doesn’t have native support for this feature. your best option is creating a view with manual sorting, but you’ll still see all records. if you absolutely need to display just one record, export it to google sheets or notion where you can actually limit the rows shown.

5

Hit this same issue last month building a client dashboard. Best fix I found was ranking plus filtering.

Make a formula field called “Rank” with:

RANK(RECORD_ID(), {Table Name})

This gives rank 1 to the first record, rank 2 to the second, etc. Then filter your view to only show records where Rank = 1.

What’s great is when you change your sort order, the ranking updates automatically. Sort by price and Carrot jumps to the top? It gets rank 1 and shows up in your filtered view.

I’ve used this for 6 months across different projects - works perfectly. No manual checkbox updates, no external tools.

This video explains view management really well if you want more details on the filtering setup.

6

Neither worked for me when I hit this same problem. Here’s the thing - Airtable’s ROWNUM() function doesn’t exist. It’s not a real formula. What actually fixed it for me was combining sorting with record limits through the API or tools like Zapier. If you’re staying inside Airtable, the only native workaround is creating a checkbox field, manually checking the one record you want shown, then filtering to display only checked records. Pretty clunky for automation, but it’s the only way I found to guarantee exactly one record without external tools. For true automation, you’ll need Airtable’s API with a script that grabs just the first record based on your sort criteria.

7

Had this exact problem when building a project tracker - needed to show only the most recent update. Here’s what worked better for me. Skip ROWNUM() and use an autonumber field as your primary key instead. Add a rollup field that grabs the max autonumber value with MAX(values). Then create a formula field comparing each record’s autonumber to that max - like IF(Autonumber=MAX_Value,1,0). Filter your view to show only records where the formula equals 1. Way more control since you can base it on creation date, modification time, whatever - not just visual position. Handles edge cases better too when multiple records have the same sort value.