Clue-answer notation

Clue-answer notation is a notational system used to represent the inner workings (wordplay) of cryptic clues which often obviates the need for potentially lengthy verbal explanations.

Notation key
Though many variants on the notation exist, the most frequently seen are detailed in the table below. Where multiple possibilities exist, the most common are listed first.

Example
Consider the down clue

A message from the setter, hauled up with broken arm after heroin withdrawal (8)

yielding the answer TELEGRAM. The corresponding wordplay, having the prolix and possibly ambiguous explanation

THE next to LEG reversed next to an anagram of ARM, all with H (heroin) removed

could be concisely represented in clue-answer notation simply as T[h]E,GEL&lt;=,(ARM)*.