if not empty check for common character

Well the subject pretty much explains what it is that I am looking for. I need a simple code snippet that will check the email field if it is not empty.

Of course if I went checked the empty field for "@" it obviously wouldn't find it and would give the user an error. But if they don't have email...they don't have email. But I want to make sure that they type it in correctly. This is my best guess...

if ($email == $_) {
if ($email =~ m/@/) {
$status = "valid";
} else {
$status = "not";
}
} else {
$status = "valid";
}

of course this code is ugly and probably won't work. So if someone could give me some insight on a better way to evaluate the email field I would be thankful.

Thanks for your help.
VulKen
Man who drive like hell, bound to get there!