fixed error handling and doc for ifelse

theano/ifelse.py

@@ -275,7 +275,7 @@ def ifelse(condition, then_branch, else_branch, name=None):
         If it evaluates to 0 it corresponds to False, anything else stands
         for True.
 
-    :type then_branch: list of theano expressions/ theano expressions
+    :type then_branch: list of theano expressions/ theano expression
     :param then_branch:
         A single theano variable or a list of theano variables that the
         function should return as the output if ``condition`` evaluates to
@@ -300,11 +300,6 @@ def ifelse(condition, then_branch, else_branch, name=None):
         ``then_branch`` or in the ``else_branch`` depending on the value of
         ``cond``.
     """
-    if type(then_branch) is not type(else_branch):
-        raise ValueError(('The two branches should be identical. '
-                          'This error could be raised if for example '
-                          ' you provided a one element list on the then '
-                          ' branch but a tensor on the else branch'))
 
     rval_type = None
     if type(then_branch) is list:
@@ -317,6 +312,21 @@ def ifelse(condition, then_branch, else_branch, name=None):
     if type(else_branch) not in (list, tuple):
         else_branch = [else_branch]
 
+
+    for then_branch_elem, else_branch_elem in zip(then_branch, else_branch):
+        then_branch_elem = theano.tensor.as_tensor_variable(then_branch_elem)
+        else_branch_elem = theano.tensor.as_tensor_variable(else_branch_elem)
+
+        if then_branch_elem.type != else_branch_elem.type:
+            raise ValueError(('The two branches should have identical types, '
+                          ' but they are '+str(then_branch_elem.type)+' and '+
+                          str(else_branch_elem.type)+' respectively. '
+                          'This error could be raised if for example '
+                          ' you provided a one element list on the then '
+                          ' branch but a tensor on the else branch'))
+
+
+
     if len(then_branch) != len(else_branch):
         raise ValueError(('The number of values on the `then` branch'
                           ' should have the same number of variables as '