while declaring all properties of my main class I have used Virtual keyword. Now I am wondering if need to use virtual keyword in my dto class or not?

CodePudding user response：

Do you foresee other classes inheriting from your DTO's and overriding these properties?

If not, then there's no need to mark them as virtual.

CodePudding user response：

Generally the conceptual Data Transfer Object is not thought be be a nested class, because it is intended to transfer data.

I sometimes end up with a nested structure where shared values are on the base class(es) but then they are not on the derived classes also. If imaginable like @tony wrote sure you can - But as the purpose of a DTO is to serialize in and out .net object entities and the wire it is on the verge of being against the concept imho.

Where i would use it is in Model Classes, that which interacts with your business layers and data storage layers, but these I would not use for DTOs to maintain freedom to change things. So whilst in quick implements DTO classes end up being Model classes too, we should remember that this is a bit hacky and only defendable while the two classes would be identical.

Though with entity framework and the likes, it is not practical to suffix a class with DTO as it is waiting to get stupid-slapped by ones colleagues when the tables are suddently auto generated with the data transfer suffix XD :).

So, No.