what do the empty sticks mean in the chemistry data sheet?

title basically, i am having a hard time understanding if they represent hydrogens or just anything like an R would

Empty sticks? Do you mean like the 2 on the left of this molecule and the one on the right half?

i mean like in the data sheet like this:

You don't need to worry too much about what it means because it's not specific but it usually means it’s bonded to another carbon or a hydrogen. If it were bonded to anything other than a carbon or hydrogen it would usually specify it, like it does in the other examples where the carbon of interest is bonded to a heteroatom such as N or O. So in the one you've circled it's just showing the typical 13C NMR shifts for a simple alkyl chain, say, ethane, propane, butane etc. Even if those bonds are linked to other carbons instead of hydrogens it's still going to be a simple alkyl compound, even if branched, and that’s not really going to affect the 13C NMR shift much, as 13C NMR shifts are generally more consistent than 1H NMR shifts.

Obviously in the other examples further down, say, the one at the bottom. If that compound is an aldehyde then you know that bind must be to an H, or if it’s a ketone it must be bonded to another C. Basically, those “sticks” are just a bond to “something”, which as I said, unless specified you can just take to be a C or H as neither of these are likely to really affect the chemical shift of the overall functional group.