equals operator (== vs ===) should be used in JavaScript comparisons:

The strict equality operator (===) behaves identically to the abstract equality operator (==) except no type conversion is done, and the types must be the same to be considered equal.

Using the == operator (Equality)

true == 1; //true, because 'true' is converted to 1 and then compared
"2" == 2;  //true, because "2" is converted to 2 and then compared

Using the === operator (Identity)

true === 1; //false
"2" === 2;  //false

How can I validate an email address in JavaScript?

Using regular expressions is probably the best way. You can see a bunch of tests here

const validateEmail = (email) => {
  return String(email)
    .toLowerCase()
    .match(
      /^(([^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+(\.[^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+)*)|(".+"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/
    );
};

Here’s the example of a regular expression that accepts unicode:

const re =
  /^(([^<>()[\]\.,;:\s@"]+(\.[^<>()[\]\.,;:\s@"]+)*)|(".+"))@(([^<>()[\]\.,;:\s@"]+\.)+[^<>()[\]\.,;:\s@"]{2,})$/i;

But keep in mind that one should not rely only upon JavaScript validation. JavaScript can easily be disabled. This should be validated on the server side as well.

Here’s an example of the above in action:

const validateEmail = (email) => {
  return email.match(
    /^(([^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+(\.[^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+)*)|(".+"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/
  );
};
const validate = () => {
  const $result = $('#result');
  const email = $('#email').val();
  $result.text('');

  if (validateEmail(email)) {
    $result.text(email + ' is valid :)');
    $result.css('color', 'green');
  } else {
    $result.text(email + ' is not valid :(');
    $result.css('color', 'red');
  }
  return false;
}
$('#email').on('input', validate);

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<label for="email">Enter an email address: </label>
<input id="email" />
<h2 id="result"></h2>