How to describe the distributed array is a key point in parallel computing based on networks. Based on the general requirement of the parallel implementation, this paper first discusses the structure and necessary components of DAD (distributed array descriptor). Then a certain DAD structure used by p-HPF parallel compiling system is introduced in detail. Further, for the sparse and the dense storage model, the methods are given out to convert global arrays to local ones in three distribution Blocks, the Cyclic and the Block_cuclic(k)respectively.These methods have been implemented in p-HPF compiler and proved to be effective.Finally,the importance of the distributed array description standard for portability and reuse of the parallel computing systems is discussed.