Data transfer object

Data transfer object (DTO) 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.

The difference between data transfer objects and business objects or data access objects is that a DTO does not have any behavior except for storage and retrieval of its own data (accessors and mutators). DTOs are simple objects that should not contain any business logic that would require testing.