use strict;
my @ref_array = ([state,pointer],[state,pointer],[state,pointer]);
my $i = -1;
my %key_index = map($i++; unshift(@{$_},$i); $i,\$_;)@ref_array;

##</code><code>##

%key_index         items in anon.arrays 
                   (@ref_array in my post)
{ 0 => \itemA }    [ 0, status, dataA ] 
{ 1 => \itemB }    [ 1, status, dataB ]
{ 2 => \itemC }    [ 2, status, dataC ]