Chemometric analyses of 1,4-disubstituted benzene aromatic carbon atom NMR chemical shifts, bearing 14 substituents (X) within a complete series involving the same substituents as fixed groups (Y), are reported. The substituent effects of (i) strong electron donors (NMe2, NH2 and OMe), (ii) halogens (F, Cl and Sr), (iii) electron accepters (CFB, CN and NO2), (iv) accepters of the carbonyl type [C(O)OEt, C(O)Me and CHO] and (v) neutral groups (H and Me) were studied using principal component analysis (PCA). The charge alterations (Deltaq) induced by introducing a substituent X at C-l were also analyzed by the means of PCA of data obtained from theoretical calculations (AM1 method). The correlations among the substituent chemical shifts (SCS) and among the charge alterations (Deltaq) and the dependence of SCS on charge alterations were analyzed by regression analyses applied to the scores of the first principal components (PC1) obtained in the PCA of the SCS and Deltaq values. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.396316322