What is Data Transfer Object?

Question

What is a Data Transfer Object?

In MVC are the model classes DTO, and if not what are the differences and do we need both?

Answer 1

With MVC data transfer objects are often used to map domain models to simpler objects that will ultimately get displayed by the view.

From Wikipedia:

Data transfer object (DTO), formerly known as value objects or VO, is a design pattern used to transfer data between software application subsystems. DTOs are often used in conjunction with data access objects to retrieve data from a database.