LR defines a reference which points to the data while LO defines one
pointing to an object.
An object reference is either a class or an interface reference, which are fundamental concepts in OO languages.
A data reference only points to data, typed data references are only
supported in releases later than ABAP 4.6.
Please refer to the below demo to have a look at the data reference.
DATA lr_data_ref TYPE REF TO data.
FIELD-SYMBOLS <fs> TYPE i.
CREATE DATA lr_data_ref TYPE i.
ASSIGN lr_data_ref->* TO <fs>.
<fs> = 13.
WRITE / <fs>.
CLEAR data_ref.