We can store a date with only year value and have zero months as well as zero-days in MySQL table by disabling NO_ZERO_IN_DATE mode. If this mode is enabled then MySQL will count such kind of date as invalid date and stores all zeros.
mysql> Insert into year_testing (OrderDate) values('2017:00:00'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.09 sec) mysql> select * from year_testing; +------------+ | OrderDate | +------------+ | 2017-00-00 | +------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> SET sql_mode = 'NO_ZERO_IN_DATE'; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql> Insert into year_testing(OrderDate) values('2017:00:00'); Query OK, 1 row affected, 1 warning (0.04 sec) mysql> Select * year_testing; +------------+ | OrderDate | +------------+ | 2017-00-00 | | 0000-00-00 | +------------+ 1 rows in set (0.00 sec)