I am looking for a file format to use to distribute extremely large tables,that is tables with so many rows that a spreadsheet format such as .ods or .xlsx is inefficient for searching, since those formats require the entire table to be loaded into memory and then searched linearly. I do not want to demand that users install a database product such as SqLite or mySQL or MdbTools. Ideally I just want the users to double-click on the file, the way they would on a .ods or .xlsx and then be able to search it using conventional GUI techniques. And I want this to work in Windows, Apple, Linux, and on tablets. In particular I do not understand why LibreOffice treats .mdb files as plain text files, at least on Linux. To be opened as a database requires that the end user install a set of drivers for either ODBC or JDBC, and then define URLs to connect the .mdb file to a database definition, which puts the operation beyond the skill-set that can reasonably be expected of end users.
