inputFilter) { $this->inputFilter = include __DIR__ . '/contact.defaultinputfilter.config.php'; } return $this->inputFilter; } } use Zend\Stdlib\Hydrator; $hydrator = new Hydrator\ArraySerializable(); $object = new ArrayObject(array()); $hydrator->hydrate($someData, $object); // or, if the object has data we want as an array: $data = $hydrator->extract($object);