In the present work, an alternative approach for the evaluation of the equilibrium K-, L-, and M-shell ionizations and the mean charge state q for projectiles passing through various targets has been proposed. The approach is based on measured K x-ray energy shifts and line intensity ratios and utilizes the theoretical analysis of projectile spectra using multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock calculations. It was applied for the satellite and hypersatellite K lines in the x-ray spectra emitted by sulfur projectiles passing with energies of 9.6-122 MeV through carbon, aluminium, titanium, and iron targets, recorded by a Si(Li) detector. It was found that only in the high projectile energy region there was significant dependence of mean equilibrium K-shell ionization on the target atomic number. The equilibrium L-shell ionization rises with the increase of sulfur energy until 32 MeV, but for higher energies the changes are very weak. The equilibrium M-shell ionization changes very weakly for low projectile energy while for higher energies this ionization is practically constant. For each target, the estimated value of q rises with the increase of the sulfur energy value. The dependence of the sulfur charge state on the target atomic number was discussed by taking into account the crossmore » sections for ionization, decay, and electron capture processes. The data were compared with the experimental data measured by other authors and with the predictions of Shima's and Schiwietz and Grande's semiempirical formulas. The presented good agreement points out that this alternative approach delivers quantitative results.« less